Lila Devi

Lila Devi founded Spirit-in-Nature Essences over 40 years ago, a lineage that has spanned the globe since 1977 as the oldest line outside the UK where flower essences first began. Based on Paramhansa Yogananda’s psycho-spiritual qualities of certain foods, Spirit-in-Nature awakens our positive qualities through the extraordinary life force found in the blossoms of fruit trees and vegetable plants—for example pears for peacefulness, oranges for enthusiasm, and raspberries for kindness and compassion. Lila’s international programs for groups from 4 to 400 bring to life these 20 flower essences that help people find their innate goodness, beauty, and strength.

Her 4 books include The Essential Flower Essence Handbook (in English, Italian, Japanese, Romanian, Czech, and English in India – and used by Doctors Across Borders to train their physicians) and Flower Essences for Animals (English and Japanese)—also the texts for the SiNE Home Study Courses; Bradley Banana and the Jolly Good Pirate (English, Japanese, and Italian), the first in a series of 20 children’s picture books personifying the flower essences; and From Bagels to Curry, a spiritual memoir about a Jewish yogi’s account of the passing of a parent. Lila is currently writing an advanced book on Spirit-in-Nature Essences, with her first novel soon to be published and a children’s book posted on YouTube.

Lila graduated with honours from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Psychology and a secondary teaching certificate, and is considered one of the foremost flower essence developers in the world today.

She lives at Ananda Village on the outskirts of Nevada City, CA.

From her students:

"Lila embodies the essences and she lives what she speaks."

"It is a blessing to be in her energy and to see how she stabilizes the space in which she works and how she harmonizes the energy of the people and the environment around her."

"Lila is a teacher full of love and devotion for flower essences and also for her students. She is an inspiration and is very good in guiding us."

"Lila is very inspirational, and she makes us all want to become better people."

Spirit-in-Nature Flower Essences

The year was 1977. A blending of the Bach preparation method with the Indian sage Paramhansa Yogananda’s interpretations of the psychological and spiritual qualities of foods began to form Spirit-in-Nature Essences.

Developed in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains just north of Nevada City, California, by founder Lila Devi, these 20 essences have since gained worldwide recognition as the oldest flower essence line within the U.S. and outside the U.K.

In this rugged desert climate, wild blackberries thrive along winding footpaths and a prolific apple orchard provides tasty snacks for wandering herds of deer. Blossoms are gathered primarily from the gardens and orchards at Ananda Village. The first yogi to live in the West, the Indian master teacher Yogananda is best known for his spiritual classic, Autobiography of A Yogi, published in over 2 dozen languages.  Fresh fruits and vegetables are filled with life force, Yogananda said – and even more so with the blossoms, or the reproductive system of the plant. If the cherry fruit contains the "vibrational vitamin" of cheerfulness, it is the cherry flower that contains the highest concentration of this subtle energy. "I’ve been taking vitamins all my life," said a flower essence client, "and I always forget to take them. But on the Spirit-in-Nature Essences, I can’t wait to take my next dosage. They are really shifting things for me. They’re affecting me very strongly."

Practitioners and lay people alike find that Spirit-in-Nature Essences help to activate a wide range of psycho-spiritual strengths. Much like the plucking of a string on a musical instrument, other strings of the same note will vibrate as well on that same sounding board. Based on the law of "sympathetic resonance," flower essences strike a similar note in our consciousness – stimulating ennobling qualities that lie within our nature.  Holistic healing, at its best, supports the entire living being by strengthening its life force, which is the true healer. Flower essences are one such method. As Hippocrates, considered the father of Western medicine, said nearly 2,000 years ago, "Our natures are the physicians of diseases." They are also the harbingers of our health.

Spirit-in-Nature Essences have been researched for over 4 decades, including a pioneering biofeedback study by the late Dr. Jeffrey Cram. We receive countless direct testimonials from flower essence users about their clients, families, friends, pets, and plants.